New camera rig captures what snowflakes look like before they hit the ground

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

It’s widely accepted that no two snowflakes are alike. However, this doesn’t happen because snowflakes adhere to some law of the universe that they simply cannot be alike. Rather, the famed phrase exists because there are just so many varieties of snowflakes, and it’s just very unlikely that two snowflakes would be similarly structured. Given an infinite number of snowflakes, there would be some that are alike. So, we have a decent grasp on how snowflakes look when they’ve landed since we can collect and study them. Now, though, thanks to a new high-speed camera, we know how snowflakes look as they fall through the sky.

Researchers at University of Utah developed a high-speed camera — dubbed MASC, for Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera — that can shoot in 3D, and aimed it at falling snow. The resulting images were much less aesthetically pleasing than normal enlarged shots of snowflakes. Rather than intricate, symmetrical patterns, it turns out falling snow looks like a bundle of fluff — more similar to a cotton ball than a snowflake you cut out of a folded sheet of construction paper.

Associate professor Tim Garrett notes that the images of snowflakes we’re all used to seeing are usually pressed onto a microscope slide, then standard photography practices take place, such as making sure the subject is in perfect focus, as well as finely tuning the lighting in order to produce a better shot. Garrett also states that the perfectly symmetrical snowflakes we’re used to seeing are actually quite rare, around one-in-a-thousand, and that there is normally much more chaos involved in the creation of a snowflake. For instance, two snowflakes might crash into one another, creating something more closely related to that aforementioned fluffy cotton ball.

MASC is composed of two high-speed 1.2 megapixel cameras, one high-speed 5 megapixel camera, as well as some motion sensors. The 5MP camera is capable of zooming in on the falling flakes, while the motion sensors can measure their speed. The MASC does not take color pictures, as that blocks out light from certain images, removing the maximum amount of information available from an image.

The new camera isn’t just so some researchers can post fancy pictures on Instagram, but the aim is to not only learn more about natural snowfall, but to see how it interacts with radar. Being able to accurately measure snowflake fall-speed and size will eventually lead to being able to better predict snowfall amounts and locations, which would lead to better safety measures and preparedness for people living in cold climates. Also, it produces some pretty pictures. So, thanks to MASC, people that aren’t totally fed up with walking to work through winter weather every single day can enjoy snow, rather than hate it so much that you dream of studying to become a mad scientist and building the world’s first weather-control (and doomsday) device.